How I learned to accept my headache

[leora]

I have a headache; I've had it most of the day. It's not too bad and might not even be a migraine, but it does hurt. And it flares up in pain now and then with certain motions (normal life stuff, not avoidable motions). I ordered some feverfew recently to give it a try. My father said it's a plant extract that helps some people with some headaches. Some people get no benefit, but it'd be easy to give it a try and I should see if it helps me as it helps some people. I think it has vascular properties, but the writing on the bottle is all aimed toward a woo-woo audience that cares about homeoopathy, so I don't know. I have a headache and don't intend to look it up.

I have now come to two conclusions. One, this stuff works by scaring your headache away. Two, I need a much worse headache to be desperate enough to use this again.

I opened the little bottle to add some to my tea. It has a dropper top, so it'd be nice and easy to give myself some. I screamed. I was expecting a liquid. I was not expecting a viscous black ooze. It looked awful. I wasn't sure I was brave enough to consume any. However, it smelled alright. It smelled a bit like a strong dark tea, not surprising as it's a plant extract. I was drinking oolong tea today, so I thought it might even go. I added some to some tea. It turns out, it also tastes really, really bad. I want to say it tastes bitter, but I don't actually know which taste words map to which tastes. But I know this maps to bad.

I have a headache. I can live with that.